One Christmas Eve in a small hollow in Boone County, West Virginia, struggling songwriter Jesse Walker witnesses a strange spectacle: seven devilish figures chasing a man in a red suit toward a sleigh and eight reindeer. When the reindeer leap skyward, taking the sleigh, devil men, and Santa into the clouds, screams follow. Moments later, a large sack plummets back to earth, a magical sack that thrusts the down-on-his-luck singer into the clutches of the terrifying Yule Lord, Krampus.

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Publisher's Summary

Santa Claus, my dear old friend, you are a thief, a traitor, a slanderer, a murderer, a liar, but worst of all you are a mockery of everything for which I stood. You have sung your last ho, ho, ho, for I am coming for your head.... I am coming to take back what is mine, to take back Yuletide....from Krampus

The author and artist of The Child Thief returns with a modern fabulist tale of Krampus, the Lord of Yule and the dark enemy of Santa Claus.

One Christmas Eve in a small hollow in Boone County, West Virginia, struggling songwriter Jesse Walker witnesses a strange spectacle: seven devilish figures chasing a man in a red suit toward a sleigh and eight reindeer. When the reindeer leap skyward, taking the sleigh, devil men, and Santa into the clouds, screams follow. Moments later, a large sack plummets back to earth, a magical sack that thrusts the down-on-his-luck singer into the clutches of the terrifying Yule Lord, Krampus. But the lines between good and evil become blurred as Jesse's new master reveals many dark secrets about the cherry-cheeked Santa Claus, including how half a millennium ago the jolly old saint imprisoned Krampus and usurped his magic.

Now Santa's time is running short, for the Yule Lord is determined to have his retribution and reclaim Yuletide. If Jesse can survive this ancient feud, he might have the chance to redeem himself in his family's eyes, to save his own broken dreams... and to help bring the magic of Yule to the impoverished folk of Boone County.

This is a strange tale which seems follows it's own whimsical beat. The story is made up of moments of light-hearted levity, somber and dark tales, a few graphic and confronting sequences, and fast paced action. It twists mundane reality together with just enough fantasy to make things really weird. It's a book that hooked me in and kept me listening. The narrator's performance is particularly noteworthy in this one.

This is a great, original fantastic novel that is on par with some of the best horror fantasy novels of Clive Barker and Peter Straub. The true primaries of the story, Krampus and Santa Claus, are exceptionally complex in their respective personas and morality. Though it takes a while for the story to find its stride, but the setup given in the early chapters pays off big when Yule Tide arrives. Krampus, the Yule Lord, is great and terrible, demonic and cheerful, wild and fearsome, villainous and heroic, and one of the most well-rounded characters I've encountered. His exploits make for scenes both humorous and horrific, and though he is not the main character, he is the heart of the book. This is a must have for anyone who prefers fantasy, magic, and humor as seasoning on their horror.

This is a sick, twisted and disgusting spin on Christmas-I f**king loved it!! Okay it's not that disgusting, I just wanted to get my point across on how twisted-ly cool this "Holiday" themed novel is. Real quick, this book's about a loser, failed songwriter(Jesse Walker) from West Virginia who comes across Santas magic sack of presents which is when his luck really takes a turn for the worse.

Santa isn't the only one who wants the magic sack, the real Yule Lord of Christmas is after the sack too, "Krampus". I won't give too much away, I'll just tell you this in an extremely well written, original, "Quentin Tarantino-esq" story about two Christmas Saints doing battle and how evil Saint nick really is. I have to tell you that the character development in this book is amazing!! I kid you not, Brom really made the characters larger than life and Kirby Heyborne's narration(especially Krampus) was one of the best performances I've heard on Audible. I don't know what kind of sick mind could come up with a story like this but God bless you!!! God bless you Brom!!

Firstly, kudos to Brom for giving us something original and self-contained. Too often are great concepts done to death by the resurgence of the serialized format. Perhaps this is another reason to check out works done by folks whose bread and butter don't all come from one art form.

As a chill atheist, I'm struggling with the thought of future parenthood and whatnot with respect to Santa. I LOVE silly traditions (reasons to party) but generally only take part in the ones that have some kind of virtue (reasons for reasons to party) attached. I don't dig the christian version of Yuletide. The Santa, as presented in this book, is a great example to help articulate how many of us chill atheists view the judeo-christian system.

Well, those of us who took the time to study it anyway.

In that light, this very adult book would make a fantastic children's book with a bit of conversion, and an outstanding aid in the education of a young upstart.

Coincidentally, you "War on Christmas" types may want to steer clear of this one.

---Note on narration: Listen to "Start Wearing Purple" by Gogol Bordello and you'll basically find it impossible to un-hear their lead singer whenever Krampus' voice comes up in this book.

The story is very well written, and draws on less well known myths. The idea that Santa has an archenemy is fascinating. With that said this book is one of the most violent works of fiction I have ever read in my life. Krampus himself is a twisted being, and the desire to kill Santa is dark. If that doesn't bother you too much then I strongly recommend this book.

Krampus was a pretty good listen right before Christmas. The narrator was great, probably my favorite aspect of the tale. The storyline was decent, only complaint was at times the flow seemed a bit stilted and littered with a character repeatedly repeating f&!* numerous times in a row. Overall definitely worth the credit.

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